Most people who worry about ticks are thinking about Lyme disease, which generally needs the tick attached for a day or two before it can infect you. Powassan virus — rarer, but far nastier — can do it in about 15 minutes. Khloe Quill reports for Fox News that the CDC logged 76 American cases in 2025, the highest annual total on record and a big jump from the usual seven or eight a year.
"Powassan can be transmitted in as little as 15 minutes after the infected tick bites, while Lyme disease usually requires a 36- to 48-hour attachment time," Dr. Jorge P. Parada of the National Pest Management Association told Fox. Carried by deer ticks and woodchuck ticks, the virus has an incubation period of one to four weeks; early symptoms are fever, headache, vomiting and weakness, and some people never feel sick at all. In severe cases it inflames the brain and the membranes around the spinal cord, bringing confusion, seizures, and loss of coordination. About 10% of those severe neurological cases are fatal, and there's no vaccine or specific treatment — just supportive care like IV fluids.
The virus is named for Powassan, Ontario, where it was traced to the 1958 death of a 4-year-old boy.
Previously:
